Federal Appeals Court Permanently Blocks Most Extreme Abortion Ban in the U.S.

Eighth Circuit strikes down North Dakota’s ban on safe, legal abortion as unconstitutional

07.22.15 - (PRESS RELEASE) After
permanently striking Arkansas’s ban
on safe and legal abortion services at 12 weeks as unconstitutional earlier
this year, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit today permanently
blocked North Dakota’s ban on abortion at around six weeks of pregnancy.

In light of today’s ruling, the state’s sole abortion clinic can continue
providing safe, legal, high-quality services to the women and families of the
state.

Said
Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights:

“Today’s
decision reaffirms that the U.S. Constitution protects women from the
legislative attacks of politicians who would deny them their right to safely
and legally end a pregnancy.

“No woman should ever have to fear her constitutional rights could
disappear overnight by virtue of where she lives. It’s beyond time these
anti-choice politicians in North Dakota and across the U.S. finally start
focusing on laws and policies that actually matter to women and their families
and put an end to relentless attacks on women’s health and rights."

North Dakota’s HB 1456—which was signed into law by
Governor Jack Dalrymple in March 2013—is the earliest and most extreme abortion
ban in the nation, making virtually all abortions in the state illegal as early
as six weeks of pregnancy. The Center for
Reproductive Rights and Thomas
A. Dickson of the Dickson Law Office in Bismarck filed the lawsuit in June 2013
challenging the ban on behalf of Red
River Women’s Clinic—the state’s sole abortion provider. A federal district
court judge temporarily blocked the ban in
July 2013 and then permanently blocked the law in
April 2014, noting “the United States Supreme Court has spoken and has
unequivocally said no state may deprive a woman of the choice to terminate her
pregnancy at a point prior to viability.”

Harmful and unconstitutional
restrictions like these further underscore the need for the federal Women's Health Protection Act (S. 217/HR. 448)—a bill that would
prohibit states like North Dakota from imposing unconstitutional restrictions
on reproductive health care providers that apply to no similar medical care,
interfere with women’s personal decision making, and block access to safe and
legal abortion services.​